Friday, 29 April 2016

We can't say we weren't warned. There were signs everywhere and at least one local told us to lock the car even if we were standing next to it. 'They will open the doors and steal your food'. We have been the victims of car break-ins twice in recent years and it was not an experience we wished to repeat.

David, however, just sometimes won't take advice - and he was hungry. He opened the boot of our car to retrieve a couple of bread rolls from his backpack. Within seconds the thief had leapt from the bushes and dashed toward us. David threw the rolls back into the boot, slammed the lid closed and retreated, leaving me trapped in the front seat with the thief staring malevolently down at me from the roof of the car parked beside us. It was as if he was daring me to be foolish enough to open the door.
The thief was one of the infamous Cape of Good Hope baboons. They are large, agile and predatory. One sniff of food and they pounce. Fortunately, once the bread roll was out of sight, he soon lost interest and I was able to make my escape. However, on our short walk across the car park we saw a half a dozen more sinister looking simians hanging around searching for victims.

The Cape Point baboon sitting on the roof of the car next to us.

Marauding baboons notwithstanding, and truth be told the whole baboon episode was a lot of fun, our drive around the Cape of Good Hope was a great day's excursion from Cape Town.

The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point

The Cape of Good Hope has a reputation as the southern most tip of Africa. It isn't! That honour belongs to the far lesser know Cape Agulhas about 200 kms to the east, but it is the Cape of Good Hope which has gone down in history and legend. This was where Portugese sailors fought the elements to open up a direct trade route to the Far East in the 15th Century, and where the Flying Dutchman refused to turn back in the face of a terrible gale, dooming his ship to sail on forever never making port or knowing peace.

A five minute trip on the Flying Dutchman Funicular took us up to Cape Point, Lighthouse where 11,642 km from Sydney, according to the sign, we stood in wind so strong it almost knocked us over. Cape Point may not quite be the southern tip of Africa but looking out across the sheer vertical cliffs it was easy to imagine that it was.

Cape Point Lighthouse - as it turned out the lighthouse was built so high up that it was often shrouded in fog. Today it has been decommissioned in favour of a modern lighthouse much further down the cliff.

Home

The sheer cliffs at Cape Point. You can just make out the modern lighthouse in the centre right of the photo.

Just in case you are wondering, David finally got to eat his bread roll. Ten minutes by car from Cape Point we stopped at another car park leading to a sign marking the actual Cape of Good Hope, as opposed to Cape Point where all the facilities are. This time there were no baboons, no lighthouses and no funiculars, just a few curious ostriches by the side of the road.

The Cape of Good Hope - the language on the right is Afrikaans

A cape ostrich.

African Penguins

Of all the animals I expected to see in South Africa, penguins was about last on the list. I thought South Africa was much closer to the northern hemisphere than it is - geography was never my strong subject. David says, and he is usually right on these things, not only is South Africa firmly anchored in the southern hemisphere but Cape Town is on the same latitude as Sydney. If Sydney can have penguins then South Africa can too. We found them at Boulders Beach, Simon's Town on the way back from the Cape and less than an hour by car from the centre of Cape Town.

Unlike our shy little Fairy Penguins in Australia, African Penguins are unafraid of being out in the daylight. A small entrance fee gave us access to a boardwalk which wound through the sand dunes above their rookery and out to the beach where dozens of them stood enjoying the sunshine.

An African Penguin at Boulders Beach

We saw lots of baby animals in South Africa. This baby penguin was the first.

In the north-west of the Cape of Good Hope Peninsula we found Chapman's Peak Drive, The road is about 15 kilometres long and runs along the cliff-edge creating one of the world's great coastal drives. As a scenic route it rivals the best parts of Victoria's Great Ocean Road.

If you do a round trip of the Cape from Cape Town, Chapman's Peak Drive will either be at the beginning of your route or at the end. South Africans drive on the left (mostly - the road accident statistics are frightening) so if you want to position your car for the best view save it to the end of the day and drive from south to north. We drove it from north to south and found that we were still able to pull in at the scenic viewpoints notwithstanding that they were all on the ocean side.

There is a small toll - under US$3.00, at the time of writing, - and the road is occasionally closed as a result of rock falls so it is worth checking the website to ensure it is open before you set out.

Hout Bay, looking back from Chapman's Peak Drive

Hugging the cliff on Chapman's Peak Drive

Three of the Twelve Apostles on the drive

The topic of next week's post will be Stellenbosch and the beautiful Cape Winelands. Keep an eye out for it next Friday/Saturday.

This looks like an amazing place, full of beautiful sights. And I never thought about penguins in Africa - I had no idea they'd live there!Won't you please come share your photos at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2016/04/worlds-best-meatloaf-recipe-wordful.html? I'd love to have you join us each week!

Thanks Sue. I will be back to sharing with you this week. I had to cut down on a few things while we were on the road. South Africa is wonderful but it had slow and patchy internet almost everywhere we went.

I think Sth Africa is a very under-rated destination both here and in the US. We only met two other Australian couples while we were there and both of them had a family or work connection to Africa. I can't remember meeting any Americans at all. We did meet lots of Europeans though - Dutch, which was hardly surprising, Germans and British.

Being distracted by cuteness is a real hazard in Africa. At one of the game parks we visited we were told that the monkeys had figured out how to open the zippers on the tents. Tourists were waking up in the night finding they were sharing their rooms - lol.

I do not know what to comment about because the post got more and more impressive. But, I loved those penguins of the beach. They are so cute! Monkeys are mischievous, right? I experienced them in Costa Rica. People will leave their things unattended at the beach and they would stop by a check all the belongings (making a mess). They would take every food item encountered.

What an amazing place, Lyn. You really made me want to go visit South Africa. I've never seen African penguins before. They are so cute! Those baboons can be very mean and mischievous. I'd be very reluctant to approach them.

We are totally in love with Cape Town and the whole region of the Cape Peninsula. There are such stunning views and great weather mostly. The baboons are a nuisance - but who was first anyway ...? #TheWeeklyPostcard

I wonder if those Cape of Good Hope baboons are related to the Rock of Gibraltar Barbary Apes. They sure seem to have the same modus operandi! I loved reading your post and reminiscing about South Africa!

Lyn, that is a fabulous drive and I would love to do it myself. What a trip you've had! Not to detract from the beauty of the landscape of course, but seeing those animals so close-up would be the highlight for me.

David and I had completely different hopes for Sth Africa. He was in it for the scenery and I went for the animals and we both came home happy. If you are interested in animals, we went to a couple of game parks and they were just fantastic. The blog posts are scheduled in the next few weeks.

Hout Bay is beautiful. The penguins are really cute too. Cape of Good Hope baboons--- not so much! OK, he was kind of cute and you were very fortunate to get a picture of him. I can't believe how aggressive he was in going after a bun! As someone else previously mentioned, those baboons reminded me too right away of Gibraltar. But they weren't aggressive!

To be fair - we were warned and there were lots of signs. David's empty stomach just got the better of him. Had he not produced food I don't think the baboon would have come out of the bushes. It was kind of fun though.

We did this exact tour a few years ago. I'm reading and smiling and thinking, OMG, we did that, we did that, we did that too! We only saw the baboons in the distance - we listened to our tour guide - LOL! Couldn't believe how much the penguins sound like jackasses. SA is such a beautiful country. Your post brought back some lovely memories. Thank you!

Oh, those sneaky baboons! Glad you were able to have fun with the whole experience. What amazing wildlife and natural beauty in South Africa. Interesting about Cape Agulhas being the southern most point --- didn't know that. Hope to get there someday. Thanks for the inspiration.

Wow, I never would have thought there'd be penguins, either! It would really be something to be able to say you've stood on the Cape of Good Hope as you did. Love the baboon photo. I'm sure he would have given you a good fight had you been unaware.

Lyn I literally squealed out loud at this post. The baboon story is fabulous unto itself. When you got to the penguins and your image of the crowd of them....well be still my beating heart. That would be a dream come true for me. Your shy little fellows in Australia definitely left me wanting more. I have serious South Africa wanderlust on my mind now!

This brought back fun memories of when my sister and I went to the Cape of Good Hope. A baboon ran over to a man bringing out some takeaway food from the cafe at the park. He snatched the man's bag of food and ran up and sat beside a sign saying that baboons will steal your food and he sat and ate it there. It gave me a great photo opp but probably wasn't so enjoyable for the man who most likely had to go buy his lunch for a second time!

Wow what a terrific post Lyn.... I have never seen African Penguins, very cool. I had a nice chuckle over your hubby's encounter with your thief. Glad you got to stop down the road for a snack. :-D I am really enjoying your posts Lyn, and am so thrilled to have you as a part of the Life Thru the Lens community.